Ministry can feel overwhelming at times. Especially around budget time or at the end of the month, when the needs of our ministry can often seem daunting and even impossible.

At my church we are currently studying the book of John and looking at Christ as the living water, the great healer, and of course as the great provider.

What a great miracle it was that day when Jesus fed thousands of men, women and children with one boy's basket of food. But what a greater miracle to realize that the Provider Himself was and is still the true Bread of Heaven and Provider of life eternal!

As you come up against all the needs of your ministry this week, review the story from John 6:1-14 and also the commentary on the miracle of John 6:26-40. Let's make sure we worship the Provider, and not just the provisions that come from His hand.

All of us want to see the issues of life clearly and this is nowhere more important than for leaders whose actions, perceptions and decisions impact teams and organizations. This does not happen automatically as the busyness of life, demands of leadership and lack of appropriate margin often cloud out clarity leaving us seeing through a clouded rather than a clear lens.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve talked a lot about the need for change and innovation in our ministries. But if we are going to benefit from innovation, we can’t depend only on ourselves to come up with new ideas. We need to engage our team to be innovators.

So how do we foster a culture of creativity and encourage innovation in our team and throughout our entire organization?

Below are 7 tips to help you create a culture of innovation and creativity:

New ideas, solutions, and approaches to problem-solving require times of solitude and reflection. In short, you need time to think. Margaret Wheatley, an author and consultant in the field of strategic planning, summed it up best: “innovation requires thinking and thinking requires time.”

So assuming you have set aside some time to think, what do you do with that time?

Below is a formula for innovative problem solving. It includes four questions made up of just eight letters:

When I first started as the pastor of my previous church, The First Evangelical Free Church of Fullerton (EV Free) in 1995, the church was a healthy one. It had previously been lead by a nationally known and respected leader, Charles Swindoll.

Pastor Chuck and his team had done a great job growing a strong, healthy church. In fact, other churches even modeled many of their programs after the successful ministries at EV Free.

Have you been tricked or deceived? Have you ever acted based on something that someone told you, only to find out too late that it wasn’t true?

It feels unfair and often it is unfair. But it’s reality.

The truth is that we are susceptible to being tricked and deceived every day. Although we hope the world and the people around us are honest and concerned for our wellbeing and the wellbeing of our ministries, this is not always the case.

You’re a pastor. You’re supposed to have it all together, right? But if you are like many other pastors today, you feel busy, buried, and behind. You feel overworked, underprepared, and your family suffers as a result.

It can feel lonely. After all, everyone in your church comes to you with their problems. But to whom are you supposed to turn?

According to these statistics from a recent blog post on expastor.com, you are not alone:

Contentment. It’s supposed to be a good thing right? We are supposed to be content with what God has given us; so in opposition to greediness and in relation to possessions, contentment is a good thing.

But contentment is not always good, like when you become content with who you are as an individual or an organization. This leads to spiritual or organizational complacency and spiritual inertia. It is what I call “old wineskin disease.”

What is the cause of “old wineskins disease”? Status quo leaders, like the religious establishment who frustrated Jesus, that have too little compassion and too much contentment. That’s a lethal combination that can bring about mission paralysis and the eventual death of any church or organization.

As my youngest daughter launched from high school to college about ten years ago, I wrote her a letter of advice reminding her that her eternal life and impact will always flow out of the internal life of her heart, and I gave her 8 challenges.

I recently cleaned out some files and came across this letter. It struck me that the same advice I gave to her, is relevant for you as you launch into this next year of ministry! So I have rewritten the letter as a charge to you for 2014:

Dear Fellow Leaders,

Guard your affections. Make sure your love is well placed. Jesus said it best when He said that all of life is summarized in two commands, “Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22). Make sure that your first love is not your spouse, parents, work, friends, not even your own life, but your God. It is only when that love is focused that you will be able to discern how to love the other important people in your life. Listen to God and His Word and obey it carefully and you will never, never be disappointed.